U.S. helicopters pounded an area near a Shiite mosque with heavy machine-gun fire Friday, killing two militants just ahead of the start of weekly prayer services and outraging preachers loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The attack took place as al-Sadr's militia is increasingly showing signs of impatience with a U.S.-led push to secure Baghdad, raising fears it might resume its campaign of violence after more than two months of laying low. The U.S. military said American soldiers called for support and cordoned off the area after they were attacked by small-arms fire from the Ali al-Baiyaa mosque in a religiously mixed neighborhood in western Baghdad at about 9:45 a.m. The military first denied reports by witnesses and Iraqi state TV that helicopters opened fire during the clash near the blue-domed mosque, but it issued a second statement hours later saying it had determined that the aircraft fired about 100 rounds of 30 mm ammunition.... http://www.msnbc.msn.com

President Bush yesterday said his strategy to send more troops to Iraq is turning the tide in favor of U.S. and Iraqi forces and rebutted claims by a top Democrat that the war is lost. "The direction of the fight is beginning to shift," Mr. Bush said in a speech at East Grand Rapids High School in Michigan. "Day by day, block by block, Iraqi and American forces are making incremental gains in Baghdad." The president's speech, his second in two days on the war on terrorism, came one day after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters, "This war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything." The speech also came as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who was in Baghdad, warned Iraqi political leaders that American patience is wearing thin. Please will the Village who lost their Village Idiot go to the White House and collect him...http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070420-105542-2117r.htm

In the minds of some students, a degree from the first English-language university in Kurdish-controlled Iraq equates to a ticket out of the country and its uncertain future. The same cannot be said for what one instructor at the school dubbed the "academic foreign legion," a motley group of international teacher-travelers who have come to Irbil precisely because of its challenging environment. Chris Whitney, director of English studies at the newly opened University of Kurdistan-Hewler (Irbil), said the program is a magnet for "alternative types who are not afraid to go to places where factors are unknown." His small yet growing teaching staff hails from countries as disparate as Ireland and Iran, with educational experience in the most remote corners of the map. Originally from Victoria, British Columbia, Mr. Whitney has taught in places ranging from Nigeria to the Marshall Islands. "As you get older, the consequences of making mistakes seem far less frightening," he said. ...http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20070420-101516-3897r.htm

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday told a Rutgers audience that radio host Don Imus' recent comments about the university's women's basketball team is a "teachable moment" for the country. "Will you be willing to speak up and say, 'Enough is enough,' when women or minorities or the powerless are marginalized or degraded?" Mrs. Clinton asked in issuing a challenge to the nation, according to the Associated Press. "Will you say there's no place -- if there ever was, there certainly isn't now -- for disrespect or bigotry to be seen as funny?" Mr. Imus' radio show and the simulcast television show were canceled after advertisers withdrew their support a week after Mr. Imus called the national championship runner-up women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos." "Will you be willing to speak up and say, 'Enough is enough,' and get rid of this female horse’s ass. Can you believe that some idiots are pushing this thing for President...http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070420-105539-8021r.htm

Pentagon lawyers abruptly blocked mid-level active-duty military officers from speaking Thursday during a closed-door House Armed Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee briefing about their personal experiences working with Iraqi security forces. The Pentagon's last-minute refusal to allow the officers' presentations surprised panel members and congressional aides, who are in the middle of an investigation into the effort to train and organize Iraqi forces. Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Martin Meehan, D-Mass., called the Pentagon's move "outrageous" and left open the possibility of issuing subpoenas. "We have the power and the authority to subpoena whoever we want," Meehan said. The episode was "one of these out-of-the-blue, what-is-going-on kinds of things," said Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee ranking member Todd Akin, R-Mo....http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0407/042007cdam2.htm

The Marine Corps chain of command in Iraq ignored "obvious" signs of "serious misconduct" in the 2005 slayings of two dozen civilians in Haditha, and commanders fostered a climate that devalued the life of innocent Iraqis to the point that their deaths were considered an insignificant part of the war, according to an Army general's investigation.Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell's 104-page report on Haditha is scathing in its criticism of the Marines' actions, from the enlisted men who were involved in the shootings on Nov. 19, 2005, to the two-star general who commanded the 2nd Marine Division in Iraq at the time. Bargewell's previously undisclosed report, obtained by The Washington Post, found that officers may have willfully ignored reports of the civilian deaths to protect themselves and their units from blame. Though Bargewell found no specific coverup, he concluded that there also was no interest at any level in investigating allegations of a massacre....http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042002308_pf.html